Startup and tribulations
Winter is ending.
I'm on fire during my franchisee training, asking many questions and taking even more notes. A whole universe opens up to me: marketing and sales techniques, employee management concepts, customer service fundamentals, all subjects fascinate me. E...
The veto and the decision
The weekend's coming up. I choose the best time. She seems in a good mood; it's my time.
I tell her the happy news of the Student Painter's offer. No congratulations! She laughs and doesn't take this project seriously:
"An organization doesn't give a franchi...
The offer
Throughout the franchisee operator selection process, John detects in me a strong passion, excellent sales skills, and a very organized spirit, conducive to a promising management role.
He tells me I stand out among the twenty candidates for the local territory as the strongest one...
The business opportunity
It all started with THE opportunity.
The opportunity is perfect.
On this chilly fall day, I get excited as I see a franchising booth at the career fair in the main hall of my preparatory college.
Obtaining and operating a Student Painters franchise at 16 woul...
From dream to nightmare
I'm confused.
I am familiar with the musty smell and the contiguous space I find myself in. Yet, as I barely come out of a deep sleep, the surrounding darkness disorients me.
Where am I?
I hear knocking at my window. As the diffused noise gets more precise, ...
Solpak is at the OCSA Conference today in Markham. Booth 19.
OCSA is the Ontario Community Support Association. The people in their network run Meals on Wheels routes, adult day programs, and a long list of services that keep seniors and people with health challenges fed and sup...
See "Ma résilience en affaires" book link
I became the youngest franchisee in the history of Student Painters in Canada at 17.
My mother had vetoed the whole thing. I proceeded anyway.
That summer I managed painters, handled client problems, carried a roll of quarters to return calls from payphon...
This is the team.
Not a department. Not a headcount. The team. Every single person who makes Solpak work.
I started this company alone. One person, one phone, one idea. Twenty years later, this is what it looks like. More than fifteen players who chose to be here. Who chose to build something together...
Keven Yvon and Michel Oliver Brazeau. My two partners.
Keven runs client relations and support. Michel runs business development and finance. Together, they run Solpak.
I did not find them on LinkedIn. I did not hire them from a competitor. I grew them. They grew themselves. They earned every inch of ...
DAY 12 OF 14 : THE WALL
Simple. Fiable. Compétent. Rapide. Amical.
Simple. Reliable. Competent. Fast. Friendly.
These five words are on the wall of our conference room. Not in a frame. Not in a handbook. On the wall.
Every person who walks into that room sees them. Every meeting starts with them in the ...
Les Mercuriades 2025. Employer of the Year finalist. Small and medium business category.
This year, we were nominated again. 2026 finalist for Entrepreneuriat/Repreneuriat. We do not know if we will win. That is not the point.
The point is that we are here at all.
Solpak. A packaging distributor from a...
SHERPA. Quebec plates. "Je me souviens."
I got this plate when I started writing the book in French. The word just fit. My car bore that plate for a few years until I moved. Then it landed on a shelf in my office.
A few weeks later, a mom at my kids' school came up to me. She told me I had stolen her ...
